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Nobility of Waterdeep
As for 'junior' noble families: the 'youngest' of them were elevated in 1254 DR, and Waterdeep has actually 'lost' two noble families since then (Zoar and Gildeggh, "Outcast" exiled in 1273). There have been three noble families who ALMOST went extinct, and some evidence that nobles or Lords of Waterdeep quickly arranged some marriages to make no noble house disappeared -- both to avoid pressure from any ambitious merchants clamoring that "there's now room for me, isn't there?" and more importantly to avoid having dozens of mountebanks or serious individuals showing up for centuries to come, claiming to be the "long lost heir" of this or that noble house ("so where's my villa? what have you done with it? You OWE me for it!"). 'Junior' in this sense really means that certain noble families play a sneering-on-others game (more often rooted in fancy than in reality) that their bloodlines are older and therefore better than those of other nobility. In truth, they're ALL jumped-up wealthy merchants, and some of them have even lost most of their wealth since being ennobled. It's akin to two ancient, toothless old men living in adjacent tumbledown shacks in a real-world village, but one of them looking down on the other because "his family wasn't originally from these parts." Faced with an outsider, however ambitious, the nobles WILL form a united front, a fortress wall ("whatever happens, gotta keep the rabble out"). Again, you can MARRY into the nobility (especially if you happen to be good-looking OR very rich, of either gender), but although I quite understand that your player doesn't want to be a mere courtier, I'm afraid he or she is out of luck unless they can marry into, successfully dispose of and impersonate a particular noble, or successfully convince a particular noble family that s/he IS a long-lost relation (and s/he'd better be ready to withstand hired magical probings and various testings, and be pleasant to boot if unpleasant, a dagger in the ribs and a corner of earth in the deepest cellar will be MUCH easier than feeding and clothing and putting up with him/her. My records tell me that the Phull and Zulpair families were the last to be ennobled, and they seem to have managed it by identical methods: 1. Succeed at trade enough to be staggeringly wealthy. 2. Buy up huge amounts of real estate in Waterdeep, especially in North Ward and Sea Ward. 3. Attend all the revels, actingly in a quiet, toady-like, subservient manner, and offer money to help with 'problems' discussed by grumbling nobles at said functions (as GIFTS and NOT loans). 4. VERY quietly loan monies to desperate noble houses. 5. Financially bail out/further the stated aims of a few Masked Lords ("cleaning up" firetrap warehouses in Dock Ward, having the sewers fixed, the harbor dredged, the city walls expanded and repaired, allowing the Lords to take credit rather than yourself. 6. Tell everyone, over and over again at revels (which you now attend dressing and speaking just as much like 'real nobles'), that you care deeply for "the good of Waterdeep" and "we must all think of the good of Waterdeep, so that it will be as great as it is now a thousand years hence." 7. When desperate noble houses discreetly approach you for even more money than you've given them before Step 4, willingly hand them more, and say, "This should be a gift, not a loan, but not being noble myself, I can't insult you like that. If we were both nobles, hey, all you'd have to do would be hint at the need, and this would always be just a gift." 8. Start marrying your daughters (made as beautiful as magic can make them, and trained in noble speech and deportment as well as money to pay retired or fired servants can achieve) into noble houses, and accompany them with staggeringly large dowries. 9. Hire spies to find out who just one or two Masked Lords are, and befriend them, financially helping their businesses. 10. Bribe some of the disaffected young wastrel nobles to verbally champion your family at revels as "acting like nobles should." 11. Bribe some servants, ditto both 10 and 11 through intermediaries, of course. 12. Bankroll some young, disaffected nobles to pursue their dreams, however foolish or zany such schemes may be. Befriend THEM. 13. Watch for financial troubles among the nobles and try to repeat Step 4, aiming for a repeat of Step 7. And, all this time, DON'T build a luxury villa of your own, DON'T openly challenge any noble, and NEVER openly ask to be a noble or pretend to be one. Eventually, someone facing ruin will remember your Step 7 and start whispering that you should be ennobled. DO NOTHING (unless you can get real control over a few Masked Lords, and add their voices to the whispering). Let it happen. As you can see, this takes KINGDOMS full of money (the Zulpairs found a remote island where monsters had devoured a dwarf clan and then perished for lack of food, leaving entire caverns full of already-mined rubies ownerless) and GENERATIONS of time, plus NOT MAKING A SINGLE MISTAKE. That's why it's never been done since. It worked for the Phulls and the Zulpairs (who have been scorned by many nobles ever since) because they practically bought up all of North Ward between them -- and then GAVE IT AWAY, property by property, to various nobles in winning their support for ennobling House Phull and House Zulpair. So there's your template. Your ambitious player had better find some way of living for centuries and (like Khelben) somehow concealing the fact that he's actually the same guy (can't have any noble whispers of "he's really undead, he MUST be -- AND HE'S BEDDING MY DAUGHTER!"). Oh, yes, and becoming the most fabulously wealthy individual in all the Realms, of course. Yes, that could be the basis of a long-running campaign. :} The Heralds would automatically recognize anyone the Open Lord of Waterdeep treated as a noble. Again, they don't mess in "shoulds" or unfolding politics, but merely enforce the rules of how people use blazons. Same goes for your question about a self-made ruler in the Border Kingdoms. Of course the Heralds will recognize his right to use a coat of arms, motto, colours, badges, and banners. They're not standing in judgement over his legitimacy at all -- they're just making sure that he doesn't deliberately or unwittingly use heraldry that copies, or is so close to as to be easily mistaken for, arms already in use by someone else. They really don't care if he controls land, has a certain number of troops, or anything like that. What the Heralds WILL do is impose fees and the existing Law of Arms to stop a commoner PRETENDING to be noble, or (in the case of our "yahoo adventurer") stop the children, friends, or creditors of someone who has a coat of arms who dies desitute all trying to use those arms as if the blazon now legitimately belongs to them (the Heralds will rule who can and can't use it). To extend this to be Obarskyrs, the approval of the elves gave them rule, soon formalized into a crown, throne, and title arrangement. Clear, formal rule is always better than endless civil war (example: see our real-world Balkans, not just now but for centuries into the past), so the Heralds step in to explain to the Obarksyrs and their early courtiers that: "You have the say over who gets ennobled and what titles are granted, but if you want them --and therefore your rule, too -- to be recognized and respected, WE set the rules you work within, for all Faerûn, and no, we will NEVER challenge your rule or anything like that: we're neutral." A trick used by certain early Heralds (before the split with the Harpers) was to magically call back the wraith of a dead ancestor to privately tell a recalcitrant ruler that the Heralds were right and should be obeyed in this -- usually by awakening and scaring the ruler, in the dead of night. Worked like a charm. :} And yes, you're right: the richest merchants in Waterdeep DID just get together (in the face of Raurlor's and then Ahghairon's authoritarianism) and say, "okay, we're special, and we get these special privileges, okay? In return, we'll support your rule instead of knifing all your agents and raising support against you and then fighting each other and destroying the whole damn city, okay?" And Ahghairon saw this as the perfect way to avoid the rise of another Raurlor, when he grew too old to stop it: these self-styled nobles would police each other as well as the "commoners" under them. Again, the Heralds DON'T "recognize" this title or that title: they just say: "You can't have three green crosses on your shield like that, Lord Falling-Down-Stairs, because there's an emperor already using that design. May we suggest this? Or that? We've brought along a few drawings..." If I was the DM and an elf "publicly, visibly saved" the entire Forest Kingdom, I would have the ruling Obarskyr of the day reward them with a handsome title: "Lord High Protector of the Realm" or some such. The Obarskyr would NOT publicly say if it was hereditary or not, and the title wouldn't be worded to make it sound so my suggested title, the implication is that the title refers to the protection THAT indivdual has conferred on the realm, so it DOESN'T hint at heredity; only the War Wizards and the local Heralds would know, one way or another (and after all, public sentiment would probably enthusiastically support bestowal of the title at the time, and the Obarskyr is banking on the lifespan of elves to make sure that the nature of the title, hereditary or not, won't come to public notice). Cormyr's early history would argue against public acceptance of hereditary elven titles, yes. Now, as for basic courses on heraldry, here you point right at a can of worms. To put it plainly, Cormyr can be said to follow the "classic" rules of British heraldry (as enforced by the College of Arms, whose main offices are in London, England, just south of St. Paul's and north of the River Thames). Waterdeep does not follow some of those rules (in most heraldry, you're not supposed to put "metal on metal" and silver are metals, for example, whereas blue and red are colours, but in Waterdeep some nobles have, so by precedent it's okay to do so. There are any number of good books, and a lot of bad ones, too, with titles like "Simple Heraldry." The wider problem in our real world is that even though a lot of individual wealthy Americans try to "buy" British titles and so on, the United States officially DOESN'T follow British heraldry (something to do with a long-ago War of Independence :}), so American corporations, for instance, use heraldry that's by British standards rather dodgy. However, the Realms are medieval-to-Renaissance, and still have that daily practical need for blazons to be painted on shields and recognized in battle so you don't gut your own father (er, unless you're planning to). So what I'm really talking about is: the Heralds of the Realms stop people copying other people's shields too closely or exactly. If you want a bunch of coats of arms, hit your local library and dig up a heraldry book (if the place uses Dewey rather than Library of Congress, you want the 929-point-whatever section, which heraldry shares with flags and books of names for your baby), and copy the ones you like. If you avoid "differencing" (marks to show descendants; a good heraldry book should have examples), quartering (the shield split up into different sections with different arms on them, to show that two or more individuals with blazons have married), and anything more cluttered than the examples in the book, you'll be okay for basic roleplaying purposes. Oh, one other thing: in the real-world, women usually use lozenges and other "non-shield shapes" to show their arms, rather than the shields men use, but in the Realms arms and arms and women use shields too. A student of heraldry (and I am one) will be shuddering at my simplifications here, but really this topic demands entire websites (and libaries FULL of books) to deal with properly. A "charge" is simply something you put on a coat of arms. For instance, if I have a plain orange shield, and I paint a boar's head at the center of it, that head is one charge (and the Heralds of the Realms will leave me alone, even if I then use that same boar's head as a badge on the armored breasts, backs, and/or shoulders of all my men-at-arms for battle recognition). But if I then think my shield looks rather plain and add a horizontal sword UNDER the boar's head, that's a second charge and the Herald comes calling. (If I change the boar's head to have it impaled by a sword, I've just changed my single charge, and the Herald will only come calling if I've spread around a lot of contracts and other documents, banners, and the like that still display my original boar's head -- because then he'll want to make sure he doesn't have two boar's-head-using persons dwelling near each other, and want to warn me that there are rules to heraldry, and I should always talk to him before making changes, okay?) I hope this first stab at things heraldic helps. Feel free to ask more specific things; I'm not trying to dodge answering, I'm throwing up my arms and saying, "Geez! This is like trying to give you the history of the world in four paragraphs! Nooooo!" I recall a slender hardcover book entitled Simple Heraldry that had pen-and-ink humorous illustrations throughout covering the REAL basics of heraldry; if I can find all the cataloguing info for it, I'll post it via the Delightful Hooded One. THE BRIGHT BLADES OF NORTH WARD: now (since the unfortunate death of young and handsome Asmurar Kormallis, "the Golden God") led by the thuggish younger Phull sons Dundelmer and Trioth, these eight or so noble sons include no direct house heirs. They love fighting (not fair fights or fisticuffs, but running their blades through people) and dislike outlanders - - and as a result, tend to visit Dock Ward taverns and festhalls often, where they target drunken, disorderly, or violence-loving visiting sailors and drovers. Rumored (correctly) to be involved in slayings, shop-pillagings, and "masked rapes of guildmasters' wives," as a result of debts incurred to Waterdhavian criminals who take such services as "partial payments" of such debts. As one Watch officer put it gloomily: "The Brights? Cruelty excites them - - worse luck for everyone else in the Deep." THE BLACKLEGS: led by the fat, food-loving debaucher (and aging uncle of his house) Roarthoes Margaster, this is the oldest of the infamous nobles' cabals. Many of its members have seen forty winters, and are now overweight and much plagued by gout and other illnesses associated with high living. Known to be involved in providing drink, drugs (and it's rumored, poisons), and lowborn bedmate lasses to various nobles, the Blacklegs have largely retired from their infamous "brawl with all comers" swordfights down various Dock Ward alleys (wherein they trusted to personal magic items to keep themselves alive, and didn't consider themselves "fullbloods" real members unless they'd been badly wounded at least once), to meeting in North Ward and Sea Ward taverns to scheme over investment opportunities, shady and otherwise, and the right times to import casks of drinkables so as to command the highest prices. The Blacklegs are some fourteen strong, but only about five of them are really active. They collectively sneer at "young thickheaded bucks" (younger nobles who gather in groups to "cut up wild"), and collectively leer at "young lasses these days," often arranging largescale pandering parties as alternative sneakaway entertainments at particularly boring noble social gatherings (so that noble-born men - - and occasionally women, too - - can sneak away from boring speeches and stilted dances to another part of the estate for daring and fun sex, and then slip back into the "proper" goings-on). Prominent Blacklegs include the mincing, monacled Korlgan Lathkule, and the monstrously fat, scented-bearded dandy Relligo Ilvastarr. THE TALONS: Sponsored by the crippled and aging "noble uncle" Laeroth Hothemer to be his entertainment and his agents (so he can still influence events in Waterdeep), these young, desperate-to-prove-themselves lads are contemptuously known as "Laeroth's Lads" by other noble cabals, who tend to regard them as foolish, meddling, reckless young boys who must be under the sexual dominance of Laeroth. This is very far from the truth: Laeroth prefers ladies (and lots of them!), and the only matters sexual he involves the Talons in is to occasionally spy on the doings of (merchant-class and lowborn) ladies he has his eye on, to learn their allegiances, hobbies, likes and dislikes so as to be able to both lure and entertain them best. (Laeroth likes to have many lovers, befriend them, and keep them as friends; he can walk only short distances on his many-times-broken, weak and spindly legs, wheezing and supporting himself on sticks, and is no physical threat to anyone, nor much of a social catch. Most of his lovers like him very much, and keep in touch. For one thing, he expects his ladies to want to be fed and wined well, and given new dresses of their choosing, almost every time he sees them.) On the streets, the Talons are led (right now; as they age, youths tend to leave the group to gain more independence, or to show their parents they're distancing themselves from "that debauched old toad Hothemer") by the handsome, glib-tongued Branthos Husteem, his sidekick the tall and pompous Elmrose Hunabar, and his rising rival Martrym Eltorchul. THE WHAELWHIRL BUCKLERS: Started by the (now middle-aged) Omnsur Jardeth as a way of impressing ladies and his noble elders with his bravery, the Bucklers have from the first claimed to be a fellowship of well-armed adventurers who regularly scour out the upper levels of Undermountain, paying particular attention to "perils that might soon erupt up into our fair city if not dealt with." They hint darkly about involvement with various Masked Lords, and being used as secret agents by "the Castle." This is all so much hoo-hah, and always has been. The Bucklers like to tell stories of their adventurers (this monster fought, that fell wizard forced to flee for his life; see this scar?), but in truth spend most of their time swaggering in "show" armor into Castle Ward and Trades Ward taverns and clubs, giving everyone "lean and darkly dangerous" looks, and drinking with whatever ladies such behaviour attracts (yes, they often drug the drinks of those who don't seem willing enough to share beds). Omnsur and the older Bucklers never do more than this, because they don't regard the Bucklers as having any other use - - but increasingly, younger Bucklers are growing restless and wanting to have REAL adventures. Not so much down in Undermountain or anything really dangerous, but how about cutting a few of these increasingly cocky guildsmen down to size? And curbing some of the petty criminals, by hunting down the bolder ones and maiming them really thoroughly? (One Buckler chased a sneak-thief whom he saw departing an upper window of his family's mansion, and took great delight in running the man's biceps and thighs through with his sword, leaving the man unable to even crawl away; the Buckler retrieved the stolen jewelry, left the man for the Watch to find, and hasn't stopped telling his story to fellow Bucklers, ever since.) THE SUNSADDLES: Perhaps closest to the early Gemcloaks in outlook and behaviour, these ten young noblemen (formally "the Sunset Saddles," though no one at all uses that name anymore) are bored and seek entertainment in playing pranks, playing "chase and find" games across the city, and duelling (not to the death, but to some silly achievement like cutting off an opponent's codpiece and then hurling it through a certain window). Members include Zorn Agundar, Halark Dezlentyr, Delzil Crommor, and the youngest, quietest Eagleshield daughter, Murelle (a small, dark-haired, lithe lass who wears mens' clothing when "out with the Saddles," and speaks in obscenity-laced growls to try to sound male). Zorn, Halark, and Delzil are the real leaders of the group. The Saddles were responsible for the precipitous closing of the Sword and Spur gambling club in Castle Ward (when they revealed in striking fashion - - involving couples caught in flagrante being run through the streets in their beds, enspelled to maintain their embraces as said beds were loaded onto coaches, and sent on a tour of Sea Ward, North Ward, and Castle Ward - - that it was a front for guildmasters' wives and other bored wealthy non-quite-noble wives to prostitute themselves to nobles in return for business favours). They were also involved in the trashing of a hunting lodge outside Red Larch where the notorious Maesmur "Millioncoin" Brokengulf was meeting Luskanite merchants to arrange various shady business dealings, and are often in the thick of Dock Ward tavern brawls, where they delight in humiliating drunkards by "spanking with swords," tripping, hurling through furniture or into chamberpots, and then departing as the REAL violence erupts. The nobility of Waterdeep are listed below. * Adarbrent—One of Waterdeep's leading shipping clans. * Agundar * Amcathra—A long-standing trade house. * Ammakyl * Anteos * Artemel * Assumbar * Belabranta * Bladesemmer * Brokengulf * Brossfeather * Cassalanter * Cragsmere * Crommor * Dezlentyr * Durinbold * Eagleshield * Eirontalar * Eltorchul (see also: Eltorchul Academy) * Ernveolstone * Estelmer * Gauntyl * Gost * Gralhund * Gundwynd * Hallwinter * Harte * Helmfast * Hiilgauntlet * Hothemer * Hunabar * Husteem * Ilitul * Ilvastarr * Ilzimmer * Irlingstar—House Irlingstar is said to have made their fortune through ship building and running caravans. * Jardeth * Jhansczil * Kormallis * Kothont * Lanngolyn * Lathkule * Maerklos * Majarra * Manthar * Margaster * Massalan * Melshimber * Mendt * Moonstar—A house with ties to the Church of Selûne and several ocean-faring guilds. * Nandar * Nesher * Phull * Phylund * Piiradost * Raventree * Roaringhorn * Rosznar * Ruldegost * Silmerhelve * Snome * Stormweather * Sultlue * Talmost—One of the city's leading clothiers and furriers. * Tarm * Tchazzam * Tesper * Thann—A leading vintner in Waterdeep. * Thongolir * Thorp * Thunderstaff * Ulbrinter * Urmbrusk * Wands—One of the city's leading magecraft houses. * Wavesilver * Zulpair * Zun Category:Inhabitants of Waterdeep